Sheet retaining means



Q- 9 L. r. LE FEBURE 2,305,434 SHEET RETAINING MEANS Filed March 51, 1941 mmvrok Z50 I if Fffil/R 1 Patented Dec. 15, 1942 SHEET RETAINING MEANS Leo T. Le Febure, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, assignor to Le Febure Corporation, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a corporation of Iowa Application March 31, 1941, Serial No. 386,039

1 Claim.

This invention relates to paper files and binders and has particular relation to means for retaining or locking ledger sheets and the like in a file or tray.

It is becoming more and more the practice in bookkeeping to enter the accounts on loose leaves and to provide trays or drawers for receiving and supporting these leaves or sheets preferably in alphabetical arrangement. Follower blocks or plates are usually provided for supporting these leaves in upright position in the trays and such follower blocks are usually provided with means for permitting the plates to tilt to permit inspection of the individual sheets without removing them from the trays.

I have found, however, that one difliculty arises in connection with devices of this character, namely that as the sheets are tilted back and forth in use, those in the center tend to work up and out of the tray. Probably this is caused through alternate slipping of the sheets one upon another as they are tilted forward and back, but whatever the cause, this disadvantage does exist.

It is therefore a general object of my invention to provide means for looking or holding thin sheets in a tray or other container.

Another general object of my invention is to provide means for locking ledger sheets and other thin sheets of this character in a tray or box to prevent sheets working upward from the bottom of the tray and yet to permit removal of one or more sheets from the tray without manipulating the sheet locking device.

Other and further features and objects of my invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art upon a consideration of the accompanying drawing and following specification, wherein is disclosed a single exemplary embodiment of the invention, with the understanding, however, that such changes may be made therein as fall within the scope of the appended claim, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In said drawing:

Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a tray mounted upon a portable stand, in which tray, sheets of paper, such as ledger sheets, are received. The tray and sheets are provided with a locking means constructed according to one embodiment of my invention.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary View in enlarged perspective of the sides of the tray and sheets such as those shown in Figure 1 and illustrating how sheets are held in the tray and how they can be removed from the tray.

Figure?) is a view in transverse section. of the tray holding ledger sheets as shown in Figure 1, and

Figure 4 is a view in end elevation of the tray and ledger sheets.

Referring now to the drawing:

For an explanation of the complete structure, reference may be had to Figure l in which a tray, illustrated generally at H], is supported on a portable or mobile base or stand I I and in which tray the sheets or pages such as ledger sheets, illustrated at 12, are received. The tray base I3 is provided with standards or uprights M, at the upper ends of which a rectangular frame I6 is received.- The tray bottom I! is provided with a recessed guide-way l8 better illustrated in Figure 3. This guideway is provided with a conventional threaded locking bar l9 by which means the follower blocks,'illustrated generally at 22, are adapted to be moved back and forth in the guide-way l8, and these blocks are each provided with a latching device 23 and a hinged follower plate 24, all this being in accordance with the usual practice of such devices.

In a preferred embodiment of my invention the opposite sides 26 and 21 of the rectangular frame I6 are provided with depending skirts 28 and 29, these skirts being preferably formed by folding their upper edges over the side bars 26 and 21. The lower opposed inner faces of the skirts 28 and 29 are provided with straps 3! and 32 welded or otherwise secured to the inner faces thereof. A sheet locking strap is provided, in the present embodiment of the invention, in the form of a half round member 33 and 34 secured to each of the opposed inner faces of the straps 3| and 32 as by means of bolts or the like.

The individual ledger sheets 36 are provided with notches 31 and 38 near the lower ends of their vertical edges, as illustrated in the drawing. These notches, of course, may be any suitable shape, as for instance, rectangular or triangular, but are preferably of the half round or concave shape here shown which has been found to be the best form to prevent wearing and tearing of the edges of the sheet near the notch. The retaining straps 33 and 34 likewise may be of any shape suitable to cooperate with the notches, but it has been found that a half round is most satisfactory as it permits easy insertion and removal of the sheets from the tray.

The individual sheets may be readily inserted and removed from the tray since, to engage and disengage the sheets from the holding means, it is necessary only to bend the sheets as illustrated at 36a to foreshorten their width, but if there are several sheets, as illustrated at 4!, or a block of sheets as illustrated at 42, the sheets cannot be removed Without the application of considerable force and hence they will not climb or creep up out of the tray or project above the other sheets in the tray. Of course if there are only a few sheets, as illustrated at 4|, these sheets can be bent in the same manner as the sheet 36 for insertion and removal, but the bending of course requires more force than in bending the single sheet as at 36a.

In order to permit the insertion and removal of blocks of sheets, I may utilize the structure illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 in which the skirt 29, the strip 32, and retaining strap or molding 33 are mounted on slides 43, which slides are provided With grooves M received on pins 16 in the guides 41 which constitute the end members of the rectangular rack or frame IS. The slides 43 may be slid in and out in the guides 41 to disengage the retaining strap 34 from the notches of the entire block of sheets or to permit individual sheets, such as the sheet 48, to be offset from the main body of sheets so the attention of the operator may be called to the sheet for making entries thereon.

Although I have shown and described a specific embodiment of the invention, it is apparent that modifications may be made by those skilled in the art. Such modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention as set forth in the appended claim.

I claim as my invention:

In a filing means for ledger cards, a tray, said tray having side bars, a skirt formed along each of said side bars, the upper edges thereof being folded over said side bars, a parallel card retainer strap extending inwardly from each skirt, and. ledger cards having concave notches in the vertical edges thereof for reception of the retainer straps. 1

LEO T. LE FEBURE. 

